Written and presented by Lisa Mullen and featuring an interview with Rob Macfarlane, this feature for R3 examined the cultural history and ecological entanglements of the often overlooked blackthorn – a hedgerow species which has been used in medicine and gin-making, is prized by woodworkers for its toughness, and is associated with superstitions and folk […]
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BBC National Short Story Award in partnership with Cambridge University
The winners of the National Short Story Award and the Young Writers Award were announced on Radio 4’s Front Row programme on 6th October. Sarah Hall won the NSSA for the second time with her story ‘The Grotesque’, while Lottie Mills – currently a second year undergraduate in English at Cambridge – won the Young […]
Continue ReadingHeaven Is All Goodbyes: The Poetry of Tongo Eisen-Martin, Zoom event: 6pm, Wednesday, 14th October
Heaven Is All Goodbyes: The Poetry of Tongo Eisen-Martin 6pm, Wednesday, 14th October In the words of Ben Lerner, Tongo Eisen-Martin’s poems are echo chambers of vernaculars and unofficial languages. He both registers the damage caused by systemic racism and evinces—and by his work extends—the rich modes of resistance that rise up to meet it. […]
Continue ReadingDr Orietta Da Rold publishes ‘Paper in Medieval England: From Pulp to Fictions’ (CUP, 2020)
Dr Orietta Da Rold provides a detailed analysis of the coming of paper to medieval England, and its influence on the literary and non-literary culture of the period. Looking beyond book production, Dr Da Rold maps out the uses of paper and explains the success of this technology in medieval culture, considering how people interacted […]
Continue ReadingLaura Wright (ed), ‘The Multilingual Origins of Standard English’, Mouton de Gruyter, was published on 7 September 2020
This collaboration by nineteen historical linguists shows why the current textbook explanations of the origins of Standard English are incorrect, and sugges an alternative explanation. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/573343
Continue ReadingFor the academic year 20-21 Dr Michael Hrebeniak and Dr Christopher Warnes were awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowships
Michael’s project is: The Cultural History and Documentary Poetics of BBC ‘Arena‘, 1975–present. Chris’s project is: Culture and Change in South Africa, 1994-2017. https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/listings?field_grant_scheme_target_id=11
Continue ReadingPaperback edition of Dr Fred Parker’s book ‘On Declaring Love: Eighteenth-Century Literature and Jane Austen’ (Routledge) comes out on 30 September 2020
This book explores the act of declaring love in works of literature written between the middle of the eighteenth century and the death of Jane Austen – and uncovers the uncertain boundaries of the self in the force-field of courtship. This was a period highly sensitive to the propriety and artificiality of public forms, and […]
Continue ReadingDr Laura Davies writes the fourth article in the University’s ‘Beyond the Pandemic Series’, in which she reflects on the need to talk about death
Dr Laura Davies writes the fourth article in the University’s ‘Beyond the Pandemic Series’, in which she reflects on the need to talk about death. Read the article here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/BeyondThePandemic_agooddeath
Continue Reading‘The ‘A Good Death?’ project led by Dr Laura Davies, in collaboration with Menagerie Theatre Company, today launch three original audio dramas, which explore death, dying and bereavement: ‘Seven Arguments with Grief’, ‘End of Life Care – A Ghost Story’ and ‘A Look, A Wave’
Seven Arguments with Grief, End of Life Care – A Ghost Story and A Look, A Wave explore, through personal stories, some of the questions and emotions that the pandemic has prompted or intensified. Written and recorded during lockdown, along with video interviews with all those involved, Seven Arguments with Grief, End of Life Care […]
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